


Thinly Veiled Favoritism

by fourdaysofrain



Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Family Dinners, Fluff, Gen, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21684616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourdaysofrain/pseuds/fourdaysofrain
Summary: “Tony is joining us for dinner tonight,” May cuts in. “I told you this morning, weren’t you listening?”Peter thinks back to when he was trying to hide the remnants of his concussion when May woke him up for school and shakes his head. “No, I guess I must’ve still been waking up.”“We’re changing the subject, here.” Tony points between May and Peter. “Let’s circle back to who’s the best Avenger.”---Tumblr prompt: Of course iron man is peter’s favorite avenger, but tony can’t know /that/.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518650
Comments: 43
Kudos: 443





	Thinly Veiled Favoritism

**Author's Note:**

> Another little self-indulgent prompt fill to distract me from finals, can you blame me?

Peter drops his head over the edge of his top bunk so the rest of his room is upside down. “Yeah, no, I get that he’s all about doing good, but he  _ did _ beat me up.”

“But he fights for what’s right!” Ned’s tinny voice says as it comes through Peter’s phone.

“Ignoring the whole  _ beat me up _ of it all, isn’t that  _ all  _ superheroes?” Peter kicks his feet up to touch the ceiling. ”Like, that’s kind of the whole point.”

Peter can hear Ned’s sigh over the speaker. “He’s from the 40s!”

“Yeah so is the Holocaust, I’m pretty sure,” Peter says absentmindedly as he places his free hand on the ceiling and lifts himself off the top bunk. 

“Well, without the suits Iron Man’s just a dude.”

“I totally get that.” He crawls to the center of his ceiling and drops his hand so he’s standing completely upside down. “But you can say that about anyone. Without the serum, Cap’s just a dude. Without the bow and arrow, Hawkeye’s just a dude. Without the spider bite, I’m just a dude. We’re all just dudes doing good.”

Ned snorts and Peter swears he can hear the sound of a page flipping in a notebook. “Okay, let’s review. So far Iron Man is better than Hawkeye, Hulk, Black Widow, and Captain America. Here’s the big one: Iron Man or Thor?”

Peter switches the phone to his other ear and scrunches his brows. “Wait, is this against some HR thing? I think they’re like my coworkers.”

“Uh… No, this is fine.”

“Yeah, that sounds convincing enough. I’m gonna say Iron Man is better because I haven’t actually met--” 

Peter’s cut off by a gasp coming from his door. He looks over to see May with a hand on her chest that she quickly lowers. 

“What did we say about walking on the ceiling?”

He grins sheepishly as he lowers himself down by a hand. “Did we say we liked it?” May’s glare is answer enough. “Sorry, May.”

“Dinner’s on the table,” she says as she walks back to the kitchen. “And there better not be any footprints up there!”

Peter huffs out a laugh and puts his phone back to his ear. “Sorry Ned, I gotta go eat dinner. I can call you after?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s clear your favorite is Iron Man.” Peter’s thankful Ned can’t see his blush through the phone. “I mean, he  _ did _ make you a suit, which is pretty awesome.”

“Yeah, he’s… cool.”

Ned laughs. “Oh my God, you totally have like, a Peralta and Holt thing going on with him. Dude, your life.”

“C’mon, man,” he says through an unconvincing scowl. ”I gotta go.”

They quickly make plans to meet up before school the next day as Peter struggles to find his phone charger from where it’s hidden in his backpack. He finds it just as Ned hangs up and plugs his phone in before heading out to the dining room for dinner.

“Sorry May, Ned and I were just talking about who’s the best Avenger. Which is stupid, because it’s obviously--” He finally turns the corner to the dining room to see Tony leaning against the wall and softly chatting with May as she sets the table. “Mr. Stark!”

At that, Tony turns to him and smiles. “Hey, kid. Don’t let me interrupt, who’s the best Avenger?”

“No, I--” Peter huffs out a breath. “What’re you doing here, man?”

“Tony is joining us for dinner tonight,” May cuts in. “I told you this morning, weren’t you listening?”

Peter thinks back to when he was trying to hide the remnants of his concussion when May woke him up for school and shakes his head. “No, I guess I must’ve still been waking up.”

“We’re changing the subject, here.” Tony points between May and Peter. “Let’s circle back to who’s the best Avenger.”

May rolls her eyes and says, “We need more napkins. He’s all yours, Peter.” With that, she retreats to the kitchen. 

“Well.” Peter swings his head over to make eye contact with Tony. “Ned and I finally agreed that it was Dr. Banner, obviously.”

“Obviously?”

“Yeah, he’s got like, seven PhDs.” Peter slides into his chair. “And he’s done a lot of game-changing research on the effects of gamma radiation.”

Following his lead, Tony joins Peter at the table. “There wasn’t anyone else  _ revolutionary _ that came to mind?”

“Well” Peter struggles to keep a straight face, “We fought between Dr. Banner and Black Widow for a while, ‘cause she’s crazy badass.”

“And you couldn’t think of anyone else?” Tony scratches his eyebrow. ”Maybe someone who’s both badass  _ and  _ a scientist? Also a large number of PhDs?”

Peter manages to force himself to look confused. “What, like-- Oh! Oh, sorry, Mr. Stark. We actually kind of… forgot you were an Avenger?”

“Okay, well now I know you’re messing with me.”

May comes back with a small stack of napkins. “Please. You should see him when he gets back from your lab visits, it’s like he’s a little 8-year-old again.”

“May!” Peter pleads, his voice jumping up an octave or two. “Embarrassing!”

Tony laughs and leans forward as May sits in her chair. “No, by all means, May. Go on.”

“You should have seen him when he was 8.” She smirks at Tony. ”Hardly left the house without his Iron Man mask on. He couldn’t wear it to school, so we had to buy him plenty of Iron Man shirts or he would just cry and cry.”

Peter groans and drops his head in his hands. “I could easily jump out the window right now. The only thing keeping me here is my good manners.”

“Having good manners means no elbows on the table,” May chides, and he obediently lifts his head back up and puts his arms in his lap. She turns back to Tony. “Iron Man has always been his favorite, you don’t need to worry.”

“Aw, kid. Don’t look so sad.” Peter carefully looks over to Tony to see him beaming with a wide grin. ”I’m my favorite Avenger too.”

“I’m gonna do it,” Peter says to himself as he looks at his lap, purposefully loud enough so the rest of the table can hear. “I’m gonna be the one to kill Iron Man.”

May laughs as Tony claps him on the shoulder. “Don’t be like that, Pete.” Tony sighs dramatically. ”If you had to ask me who my favorite  _ non-Avenger  _ superhero was, it’d be you.”

Peter scoffs. “Yeah, well. Same.”

“Look at the two of you,” May says warmly as she leans back in her chair. “I’m going to get you matching sweaters for Christmas.”

That finally breaks the tension and they all laugh together. They even think she’s joking. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang with me on Tumblr: [spider-beep.tumblr.com](spider-beep.tumblr.com)


End file.
